Thursday 22nd August

Hike Day 8

Early morning full moon. 

I awoke at about 5am this morning and what a morning.  The weather was fresh but lovely and clear and a full moon still in the sky and the first rays of sun light hitting the mountains.  Today should be an easy day.  It's only 16 km and the route is mostly along valley floors. 

The hut felt very quiet without the Czech group looking enviously at us and our chocolate supply.  Now that they were a full day ahead of us, part of me regretted the idea of not seeing them again at the next hut.  Who knows, perhaps we'll bump into them in Sisimiut.  It was fun having people from a different country to talk to. 

Early morning full moon over the lake with the big hut. 

Early morning over the lake. 

Morning moon over the lake. 

By about 6.20am Richard and I had had our breakfasts and were getting our gear together.  We hit the trail at about 7.30am.  Today was a pretty easy day.  The weather today was great and the route followed valley floors for the most part.

On leaving the large hut, the path skirts around the edge of the lake and crosses the river which flows out of it.  This is a fast moving river which carves its way into a steep sided gulley only short distance from the edge of the lake.  The best place to cross the river is right at the edge of the lake where it is relatively easy, not to mention much safer, to cross by hopping from one boulder to another.  If you attempt to cross further down the river, the water is much deeper and faster.     

Sun begins to rise. 

After crossing the river, the path follows the northern edge of the lake for a short distance before moving up the slope away from the shoreline. The path continues up a gentle climb to the summit of the saddle on the ridge line directly across the lake from the hut.  This can clearly be seen on the photos.  On the way up to the saddle, we stopped a few times to take in the magnificent view and to take a few pictures. 

When we got to the summit of the saddle, we took a few moments to look back towards the hut where we had had our rest day.  

From the top of the saddle, the path drops down gradually into the next valley.  As we dropped down into the next valley, we had our first sighting of an Arctic hare.  I did try to get a couple of photos of it, and I have included one in this post, but it's not a great picture so I've included it just for the sake of completeness.    

Looking back along the lake towards the hut. 

Before reaching the valley floor we stopped for a mid morning snack after which we set off again at a good pace.  The scenery was yet again breathtaking.  

Looking back at the lake with the island and the hut in the distance. 

Final look back at the lake towards the big hut. 

Arctic Hare.  Honest!

Dropping down into the next valley.

The next hut should be just around the corner. 

The next hut can just be seen in the distance. 

ACT cairn and the next hut in the distance. 

We arrived at the next hut at about 1pm.  On entering the hut we found a little surprise which had been left by the CZech group.  They had found a small Union Flag from somewhere and had left it together with a single chocolate and instructions to play Rock, Paper Scissors for the chocolate. We both thought this was a very nice and touching thing to do.  

Flag, note and chocolate left by our Czech friends. 

We both felt really energetic still and gave serious consideration to the idea of cracking on to the next hut, another 16km away or to using the tents to camp higher up in the mountains.  However, we quickly decided to just take advantage of having an easy day and decided to stay put and to give ourselves the afternoon off. 

The crumbling mountains that surround the little hut. 

The hut with anchor cables. 

The wind can apparently really howl up this valley in the winter and as such the hut is anchored to a concrete raft using steel cables.  

Like the big hut from the previous day, it is sad to see so much litter and dog crap around the hut.  This disregard for the environment is clearly not associated with hikers but is instead associated with the Greenlanders themselves who use these huts when out dog sledding and hunting from Sisimiut which is now only two-day's hike away. I really hope that the Greenlanders can be enlightened about how to look after this place better.  

The hut looking towards tomorrows route. 

The hut looking toward where we came from. 

The afternoon was spent reading, writing and collecting water from the vary pretty stream which flowed close to the hut.  The evening seemed to arrive very quickly due to the hut been in a steep sided valley and the sun effectively setting (on us at any rate) much earlier in the day.  Again, once the sun had gone down behind the surrounding ridges, the temperature rapidly dropped too.  

The hut in its steep sided valley. 

Tomorrows route. 

Inside the little hut.